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As the West howled its outrage, Russia retaliated, closing its airspace to most Western airlines. Instead of traversing Russian airspace on a direct flight across Russia, Finnair was forced to reroute its China flights across Turkey and Kazakhstan. What had been an 8½ hour flight became an 11½ hour flight, which massively increased fuel costs, causing Finnair to slash its Far East services. Today the carrier operates a daily service to Hong Kong, but only three flights per week to Shanghai.
The Middle East is particularly susceptible to violent flare-ups that cause airlines to cease flights to the region. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has had a heavy impact on flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut and Amman.
Before that conflict erupted, inbound and outbound passenger traffic to the state of Israel benefited from a thaw in relations with the UAE, which saw several airlines launching services between the two states. Over the summer of 2023 there were more than 2100 flights between Tel Aviv and the UAE. That number has now shrunk considerably, although it’s likely that flights will increase when hostilities finally end.
By contrast, just a few years ago, relations between Qatar and the other states of the Arabian Peninsula were so frosty that Qatar Airlines aircraft were forced to fly a roundabout route to and from Europe to avoid Saudi airspace.
The breach has now been healed, and over the northern summer of 2024 there were almost 5000 flights between Doha and cities in Saudi Arabia.
When one door closes, another might open
That’s what’s happened for Qantas. Nauru Airlines announced the end of its Brisbane-Palau service from November 2024, when its contract with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) expires.
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Nauru Airlines only began the so-called “Palau Paradise Express” in May 2024, at the behest of DFAT, and now Qantas will take up the route. The national carrier will operate one weekly 737 flight per week, also partially financed by DFAT, to support trade and tourism links between Australia and Palau, and also to counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific islands.
Airlines are constantly assessing each individual route they fly, comparing the revenue per mile from each and even resizing their fleets when opportunity knocks, or walks out the door.
I recently flew from Casablanca to Rome. Although the booking was with Royal Air Maroc the flight was aboard an Electra Airways A320-200, wet leased from the Bulgarian-based charter operator, since the Moroccan airline needs to fill gaps to take advantage of increased traffic from Europe in the peak October-December period.